


Blood Moon

by Theluminousfisheffect



Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29788812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theluminousfisheffect/pseuds/Theluminousfisheffect
Summary: This is for a server prompt. It was an image of a blood moon and was meant to be about the atmosphere it gives you, so this is my take on why a space nerd like myself gets happy when you let us look at pretty night skies.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 6





	Blood Moon

They stood alone in the middle of their road, a solitary figure on an almost abandoned country lane. With not a soul around to disturb the stillness, the only sounds were made by them and the night breeze drifting lazily through the bare trees. Darkness surrounded them, engulfing everything in tall, dancing shadows. It was a far cry from the usual dazzling white light that lit the lane on cloudless nights but still, standing there, they felt at ease. 

The once pale moon had risen high in the sky in front of them, now turned to rusty Martian soil in the Earth’s shadow; the craters like patches of blood splattered across the surface. As they stared into the dimmed iron hue, the world sank away around them and their heart squeezed with a longing they couldn’t put into words. A stone weight lifted from their chest and they took their first real breath, filling their lungs with the cool night air. It tasted sweet on their tongue; the smell of the fresh grass and violets in the hedgerow perfumed the air.

They breathed out through their mouth and in that moment, alone in the darkness, they were paradoxical. Their chest swelled with an emotion they couldn’t describe, overwhelming them with the foreignness of it. They felt like a person, a real, living person, so tiny and inconsequential on the scale of the Universe and yet, like they contained every last atom of it; the Universe and them, them and the Universe, interchangeable, interlinked, infinite and infinitesimal all at once. 

They couldn’t explain the sudden rush of belonging that washed over them as their eyes wandered over the scarlet moon but it was there nonetheless, like an invisible cord pulling on the centre of their chest, desperately tugging them up to the heavens. That thing, whatever it was, that they struggled to find in the day to day, that missing piece that prevented them from feeling inhuman or alien or robotic, sang in their blood. It was so easy here, without people, to feel connected to everyone. Maybe it was because they were all here. Every human who had ever lived and died was here on this planet with them, even the handful that had dared to walk the surface of their heavenly neighbour. But it took distance to see that. They had to look out first and remind themself of how cosmically unlikely their very existence was before enough of the nonsense that was supposed to be so important melted away enough for them to just feel like them.

This was how it should feel, they reckoned, to be human. To be everything at once; big and small, young and timeless, trivial and vital, all bundled together in one person-shaped melting pot. This feeling of weightlessness while being tied to the ground that was crying out from the centre of them, answering back to the endless call of the stars. This was how it should be.

They smiled to themself, big and bright and warm, and they knew; this was what it felt like to come home.


End file.
